NASA Invites Media to Annual Lunabotics Robotics Competition
Why this matters: new research or scientific developments with potential real-world impact.
Students from the United States Military Academy (West Point), dressed in safety gear, prepare to enter the mining arena with their robotic miner during NASA’s LUNABOTICS competition on May 24, 2022, at the Center for Space Education near the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 35 teams from around the U.S. have designed and built remote-controlled robots for the mining competition. NASA/Kim Shiflett NASA will hold its 2026 Lunabotics Challenge Tuesday, May 19, to Thursday, May 21, at the Astronauts Memorial Foundation’s Center for Space Education at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Links to view the Lunabotics competition live can be found on the agency’s Lunabotics page. The competition is slated to run between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. each day. Media are invited to attend the competition event on Wednesday, May 20, and should RSVP by 4 p.m. EDT on Monday, May 18, to the Kennedy newsroom at: ksc-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov. For this challenge, 50 college teams from across the country will convene to design, build, and operate their own lunar robot prototypes. The teams’ self-driving rovers must be capable of building a berm, a protective barrier, from soil and other material simulating lunar regolith to safeguard Artemis infrastructure on the Moon. In space, such berms could protect equipment from debris during lunar landings and launches, shade cryogenic propellant tank farms, help shield a nuclear power plant from space radiation, and serve other purposes. “The task of robotically building berm structures will be important for preparation and support of crewed lunar missions,” said Kurt Leucht, NASA software developer, In-Situ Resource Utilization researcher, and Lunabotics commentator located at Kennedy. “These competing teams are not only building critical engineering skills that will assist their future careers, but they are literally helping NASA prepare for our future Artemis missions to the Moon.” NASA’s Lunabotics Chal